An award-winning holiday retreat on the Scottish Borders is seeing the financial and carbon saving benefits of biomass, thanks to a district heating system from Euroheat, and the commercial Renewable Heat Incentive (RHI).

Eildon Cottages, in Melrose, is a holiday destination comprising a converted 18th century farm house, with six newly built self-catering cottages. Prior to biomass, the farm and holiday cottages were heated by two kerosene boilers.

Simon Holden, co-founder of Euroheat, explained: 'Apart from the carbon saving benefits of switching to biomass, what's really attractive is its money saving credentials. At Eildon, twenty tonnes of pellets a year are required to fuel the system, at a cost of £3,600; less than half the cost of Kerosene. The savings don't end there; thanks to the Renewable Heat Incentive, Eildon receives an annual payment of £7,367, more than covering the pellets. When combined with money saved on the previous fuel, biomass delivers a return of £11,067.'

The biomass heating system, installed by GreenHeat Renewables, consists of a single, 65kW HDG Compact pellet boiler and accumulator. The HDG Compact is designed to burn pellets or wood chips, with optimised combustion technology, which results in high efficiency and low fuel consumption. An advanced thermostat controls the boiler temperature, ensuring only the required amount of heat is produced.

Pellets are transported to the combustion chamber and automatically ignited, with self-activated cleaning and a large ash container, meaning minimal input from end users.

Pellets were chosen due to the limited space available to install the hopper and restricted access for delivery. They are more expensive compared with logs or chip but offer additional benefits to end-users; such as taking up less space, a key requirement at Eildon, and creating less waste. Helping to ensure their low carbon credentials, pellets are now easily available from British-based manufacturers throughout the country.

The boiler and hopper are built into an existing outhouse. Internal pipework transfers the heated water to all six holiday cottages and an underground REHAU Rauthermex pre-insulated pipe then transfers heat to a heat exchanger in the main farm house. This separates the farm house from the holiday cottages hydraulically, so, if maintenance work on the distribution system is required on one building, it does not affect the heating in the others. Each individual property has its own standard central heating controls.

Euroheat delivers HETAS approved training courses from its exhibition centre in Bishops Frome near Worcestershire. For more information, visit: www.euroheat.co.uk/training.

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